Having fallen out with Microsoft Corp, RealNetworks Inc has now solidified its burgeoning relationship with Netscape Communications Corp by inking a deal to have its RealPlayer 5.0 and the forthcoming G2 release of the audio and video streaming product bundled with the final version of Netscape Communicator 4.5, released this week. RealNetworks’ software will also be available through Netscape’s SmartUpdate service via its Netcenter site. RealNetworks has accused Microsoft of deliberately disabling its streaming products in Windows 98 (07/24/98), a charge Microsoft denies, instead alleging a bug in the RealNetworks technology (07/27/98). Part of the Department of Justice’s case against Microsoft includes allegations that Microsoft tried to persuade RealNetworks to share its streaming technology with it, promising that the two companies would then share the Windows streaming market between them; another charge denied by Redmond (09/02/98). Netscape has been on hand to back up RealNetworks’ claims against Microsoft (07/27/98) and back a recent file format standards effort by the streaming media company (08/03/98).
